


Scream

by Barbedbeat



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Light Bondage, Novel, Novel shit, Smut, Tease&Denial
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-27
Updated: 2018-10-27
Packaged: 2019-08-08 13:39:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16430438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Barbedbeat/pseuds/Barbedbeat
Summary: This is a short story fresh out of my novel-in-progress.The novel itself centres around the misadventures of a steamship captain named Smug, idealistic yet grumpy smuggler who cares too much for her own good.It's an amalgam of science fantasy and coalpunk, it's still in the works and I can't help but love my messy characters so much.





	Scream

The evening din of the Drake’s Head echoed like a distant fanfare at the back of Smug’s awareness as she sat at her table, head bent low on her log, and busied herself with her customary entry-tampering activity.  
She had become very good at making things up and writing them down, if only for the purpose of hiding her ship’s involvement in the illicit trade of crystals.  
Maybe one day she could sharpen her craft, and become a journalist... or a writer, even.  
The sole thought brought a chuckle ringing at the back of her throat.  
No, impossible: she was a woman of action, and idleness didn’t become her.  
Not even if it were to be concealed by the thin mask of focus and introspection.  
She stretched her metal hand towards her tankard, and felt something blocking its course.  
Her eyes rose to see Rewana staring at her, the light of their table lamp casting its glow on her bronze skin.  
She felt her prosthesis vibrate ever-so slightly as the woman’s index toyed with one of its rivets, bringing a hand to support her chin.  
Smug knew what it meant, and a cold bead of sweat coalesced at the back of her skull.  
Rewana was a magnificent woman. She had the body of a goddess, and her mind had been gifted with all the intelligence and charisma of a demon.  
And Smug, she had to admit, loved her intensely.  
She and Rewana-- Keke in art-- had been knowing each other for twelve years, and they were lovers.  
Lovers that were already married to their respective jobs, Smug as a steamship captain, and Rewana as the matron of Banti’s-- and as a result, the whole of Umwe’s-- most renowned brothel, but lovers nonetheless.  
They would have died for each other, given the chance.  
And that was all that mattered.

  
They had first met when, at age 15, Smug had strolled inside the Head, along with captain Maddox and the rest of the crew of the MS Chimera.  
Rewana was 17 then, and had just started learning the ropes.  
Under direction of the then matron, she’d been sent to serve booze and generally provide as pleasant an experience for her customers as she could.  
When her hands had slid onto Smug’s shoulders and their gazes had met, Keke had seen her gasp, cheeks bright and red, suddenly oblivious to the ale she’d slid under her nose.  
Months had passed, and their interaction had mostly been limited to the occasional wink and wave from Keke’s part, and the awkward stuttering of Smug while she raced hiding behind Maddox’s back.  
Then, four years into that hopeless charade, fate had finally brought them together.  
It was a helpless, dramatic sort of encounter, tinged black by its bleak context.  
Smug was dying.  
This is what Maddox had told Rewana, pallor and exhaustion turning his face into a taut grimace, as he slipped a handful of coins into her pocket.  
“Hunting incident. A harpoon chain ripped her left arm apart. Wound got ugly, and she’s not getting better. Doc came earlier, did all she could, but…”  
The man had sighed.  
“I want her to have at least some good memories, before she goes.”  
He’d then patted her on the shoulder, low-key pushing her on her way.  
“She likes you, you know.”  
When Rewana had opened the door of Smug’s room, she’d found her huddled in her bunk, giving her back to her.  
She was emaciated, nothing but a shuddering heap of skin and bones, drenched in sweat and dread alike.  
Keke had felt her stomach slip down to her knees, but had kept her chin up.  
She’d bolted the door locked, and had poured some water in a glass.  
Then, she’d strode all the way to Smug’s bed, lips bent in a comforting smile.  
“Hey,” she’d whispered, poking the girl on the shoulder.  
Smug had rolled over with a jerk, shaking madly.  
When her eyes had met Keke’s they’d gone wide, and her jaw had dropped.  
She’d tried to say something, but her mouth had opened and closed without producing anything coherent.  
“Wh… how...”  
Smug had wiped the sweat off her brow, trying to gauge whether she’d fallen prey of a very vivid hallucination.  
Rewana had chuckled, raising a finger to caress her burning cheek.  
“Maddox told me you were unwell. I came to keep you company.”  
She’d raised her glass.  
“I brought you some water, too.”  
She watched as the sailor swallowed, eyeing the liquid with increasing desire.  
It was clear the sailor wanted nothing more than snatch that cup from her hand and drown in it, in a futile attempt to quell her scorching thirst... but something was stopping her.  
That something, Keke had realized, was her.  
Shaking her head, she’d brought the glass to Smug’s lips, flinching a fraction when her white-knuckled hand had clutched hers, desperate and strong.  
She’d watched as Smug started taking frenzied sip after frenzied sip, sending water dribbling down her chin.  
Then, once the young woman had finished drinking, she’d leaned in, and had taken her lips between hers.  
Smug’s mouth felt like a hot, wet oven.  
And, she found, it was not at all unpleasant.  
She’d felt her freeze, every muscle stiff and hard with alert, as her fingers gently brushed her hair, and her tongue danced against hers, prying a panicked moan out of her chest.

They’d kissed and kissed, until Smug’s shakes had turned into excited shivers, and her erratic breathing into deep gasps. When their eyes had met again, Smug’s were alight with a kind of fever she knew all too well. She’d let her fingers trail along the sailor’s neck, then up, to tickle her earlobe.  
When she’d straddled her, she’d thought Smug would die.  
Her back had arched, and she could feel her pulse quicken between her thighs, teeth clenched in a sudden rush of lust.  
Then, Rewana had found herself wrapped in her halved embrace, and had felt the pressure of her lips as they savoured her neck, ravenous yet gentle, and her hips quivered with pent-up fervour.  
They had sex.  
It was sultry, frantic, urgent sex, its rhythm marked by Smug’s explosive urgency, body wracked by fever and need, mind racing and blank.  
Keke’s orgasm had been overwhelming and loud, dragging Smug into a wild fit of pleasure.  
When it had washed over, the sailor’s arm had squeezed her into a tight hug, and had locked in place as her owner trembled, chest heaving with pants and stifled moans alike.  
Her touch was raw and eloquent, and oozed with fear.  
She was clutching Rewana’s ribs like a drowning man would a bit of driftwood, clinging to a hope of the maddest kind, too scared to dare and let it go.  
They’d stayed like that for minutes, enveloped in one another as Smug’s energies waned, sickness and exertion taking their toll on her mangled flesh.  
Keke had felt her sink away, grimacing, suffering etched in dark lines under her shadowed sockets.  
She’d heard her mutter something as her eyelids snapped close.  
“I love you,” she’d said.  
Then, her head had fallen on her pillow, and she’d fainted out of responsiveness.  
Rewana had chewed on her lip, unable to ignore that feeling that had taken hold inside her.  
Affection and attachment, she’d learnt, were detrimental to her job.  
Yet, Smug was… different.

It wasn’t only because -- three years prior -- the sailor had nearly got killed by that ox of a pirate after trying to free her from his drunken bout of violence, nor for the way she’d awkwardly exclaimed “Ah, it was a pleasure!” when Keke had gone aboard her ship to thank her, finding Smug wrapped from head to toe in heavy bandages.  
It was for the way she melted whenever she spoke to her, and for how her hardened shell and commanding mannerism of first officer evaporated in such occasions, replaced by that fumbled, soft mess her real core was.  
Rewana liked that core. It was respectful and kind, and it’s wasn’t afraid to take form in front of her eyes, naked and plain, like a beautiful secret only she could access.  
Should that core slip away from her life, Rewana would have found the world several shades greyer.  
  
She’d brought the back of a hand on Smug’s brow, and felt the steely maws of dread tugging at her guts.  
There, under a thick film of sweat, her skin was aflame. Her temples were throbbing, and minute spasms took ahold of her muscles as the infection zeroed in on her veins.  
She’d immediately plopped a wet cloth onto Smug’s forehead, and her lips had moved in silent prayer as she covered her with an extra blanket.  
When she’d left her room, her heart was heavy, and her shoulders hunched.  
She’d found Maddox cooped up on a barstool, eyes red with worry and alcohol.  
“If you let her die,” she’d stated, “I swear I’ll kill you.”  


Smug, turns out, hadn’t died.  
They had to carve a necrotic lump of flesh out of her bicep, but once the offending bit had all gone, her fever had dropped, and her customary grit had reprised infusing her words and attitude both.  
Sure, her arm had been replaced by a metal prosthesis, a whirring contraption that looked as heavy as it was unmanageable, though Smug seemed to have mastered its use fast enough.  
Years had passed since then, and a lot of things had changed.  
Maddox had died, and Smug had taken his place as Captain aboard the MS Chimera.  
Similarly, Rewana had climbed the ranks, seizing the reins of the house once Mother Merren had become too old to walk straight, administering it with the customary brilliance she put into her every endeavour.  
Yet, they’d never ceased to see each other, sharing a warm dinner and a steaming bed every time Smug and her crew made port in Banti, no matter how busy their schedules or tired their bodies.  
  
And now there they were, sitting at a rickety table, lost deep into each other’s eyes over a hearty pot of pumpkin soup and a pile of beer steins.  
Smug watched as Rewana brushed a bead-ornated braid out of her face and leaned closer.  
“Know what I’m thinking, Smug?”  
Her voice was as warm as gluhwein, and twice as sweet.  
Smug felt her defenses lower in front of that disarming smile, but somehow managed not to let it show.  
Or so she thought, at any rate.  
“Why, I don’t have a clue!”  
“I was thinking...”  
She felt the fine hair on her neck stand on end as the woman leaned over, bringing her lips one inch from her ear.  
“... that tonight I want to hear you _scream_ .”  
She’d said it in a way that made Smug’s temperature rise.  
The sailor found herself swallowing helplessly, mouth suddenly dry.  
“H-- oh?!” She croaked, pouring herself another beer.  
“What do I owe this magnificent idea?”  
Rewana chuckled, slouching back in her chair.  
“Well you see, love… in all these years, all you gave me were those stoic grunts of yours. Sure, you might have moaned in my ear, from time to time, but… I think it’s time you shed that grumpy captain attitude, in bed. So, yeah.”  
Rewana winked at her, twirling the tall stem of her glass between her fingers.  
“As I said, tonight I’ll make you scream.”  
Smug inhaled deeply, trying to regain her defiant composure in spite of the surge of adrenaline buzzing in her veins.  
“I see...”  
She reached for her tankard and began sipping her drink in an attempt to quell her sudden thirst.  
“.. and how are you planning to accomplish that, exactl--”  
Her voice drowned in her beer, sending droplets of froth dripping down her chin.  
Rewana’s toe had sneakily wedged itself right between her legs, tickling all the right spots with tormentous savoir-faire.  
Smug raised her gaze to met her lover’s, and found it full of that impish fire that made her blood sizzle.  
“Wana, please...” Her voice was little more than a pleading whisper, immediately shut down by Rewana’s shushing gesture.  
“Ah-ha, Smug. you don’t want to attract the patron’s attention. Now be a good girl and finish your beer, hmm?”  
Smug clamped her eyes shut, grunting softly in her ale.  
She could feel her belly tangling up, afire with need.  
When Rewana’s foot sank deeper in her crotch, there wasn’t much she could do besides clutching the edge of her table with a white-knuckled fist.  
She could feel her pants become awfully tight, her desire growing stronger and stronger with every stroking motion of that perfect foot.  
Her gulps became more and more erratic as she strived to down that load of liquid without choking on it, her chest pounding harder and harder with every passing second.  
Before long, she found herself on the verge of bursting.  
Smug slammed her tankard down with hasty force, biting her lip as the teasing stopped, leaving her in equal parts relieved and frustrated.  
Wana knew what she was doing.  
And she looked like she was enjoying herself immensely.  
“Ah, well done,” she clucked, stretching her arms and starting on her feet.  
Smug considered her lucky there was a table between them, or she’d have smothered her then and there.  
“You… you absolute imp, I swear...”  
“Ah, stop the blubbering now. I haven’t even started yet.”  
Smug felt like fainting as the sole implication, but managed to gather enough strength to keep upright.  
Rewana’s pat brought her back to her senses.  
“Come on, Smug love! There’s a nice, cozy room ready for us upstairs.”  
She winked again.  
“You don’t want to make it wait.”

* * *

Smug had scrambled on her feet, following Rewana’s lead up the Head’s wooden staircase, an impatient flush climbing its way up to her cheeks.  
When the door to their room creaked open, Smug was already well into overdrive.  
The height difference between the two was considerable, and Smug had to bend down to bring her lips against her lover’s, letting her hat topple on the floor in the process.  
She’d just started to unleash her tongue when Keke pushed her away, grinning from ear to ear.  
“Hey, calm down a tad, will you?! This is no race. You need to learn and...”  
She placed a finger on Smug’s quivering mouth, sapiently avoiding her nibbles.  
“... take it slow.”  
The sailor stood there, following Rewana with her gaze as she slipped behind her, grasping the sleeves of her coat.  
When her teeth closed around Smug’s neck, gently grazing her skin into a shiver, Smug saw a flash of white overcome her vision.  
Next thing she knew, she was pinned against the wall, every fiber tingling with lust as Rewana’s body pressed hard against hers, and her fingers circled her pelvis, slow, agonizingly slow, before diving underneath her belt.  
Smug moaned helplessly, groping her lover’s buttcheeks, pulling her closer, mouth locked with hers in a scorching dance.  
They both slid on the floor, gasping in unison as their desire soared, hands clasping hair, their kisses turning into wet bites.  
When Keke pulled away, Smug was shaking.  
She flinched a fraction as Rewana’s foot pushed on her chest, holding her in place.  
The woman’s shirt hit her on the face as she backed away, revealing her curves, muscles darting underneath her skin like tantalising serpents.  
When Keke reached the bed, she sat on it, spreading her legs in a clear invitation.  
Smug rolled on all fours, shedding her coat like a snake would its skin, chest thrumming with anticipation.  
She climbed all the way up, mattress creaking under her weight as she flopped on her lover, placing her hips right above hers. She had just clenched her teeth in ecstasy, savouring the warm swell of Rewana’s labia underneath her own, when Keke pushed her back.  
“Not so fast, Smug... ”  
Her hand grabbed a tuft of her hair and pushed her down, and down still, until she found herself obediently lapping at Rewana’s womb, tracing the soft contours of her crotch, breathing in her musky scent.  
Then, her lips closed around her clitoris, and she began to sip on it like a lost wanderer in the desert would his last droplets of water.  
She could feel Rewana’s muscles stiffening, bliss sending a shiver down her spine.  
Smug’s tongue started swirling around her soft parts, ravenous, its urge fueled by the woman’s sweltering gasps.  
When Keke’s spine bent under the force of a mind-shattering orgasm, Smug had to cross her legs against the sudden throbbing amidst her thighs.  
She stayed like this for a while, kissing her lover’s womb, groaning softly as she let Keke’s pleasure boil down, savouring the salty aftertaste of her juices.  
She’d never wanted her more.  
“Very well,” Rewana said, chest heaving, sweat glimmering on her skin, satisfaction plain in her features.  
“Now come here.”  
She patted the empty spot on the bed beside her and waited for her to comply.  
Smug instantly obeyed, blood thundering in her ears.  
She rolled over, exposing herself, twitching with suppressed urgency.  
The captain felt her whole form quiver as Rewana straddled her, and her raw, burning kiss pried a gasp out of her throat.  
Smug’s hips had started grinding against her partner’s firm body when Rewana interrupted her once more.  
“Smug, you’re unbearably impatient tonight. I wonder what got into you...”  
He tone oozed with mockery, and she knew exactly what she was doing when, stretching to reach for something underneath the pillow, she planted her bosom right in Smug’s face.  
The sailor wailed, lips closing around a mouthful of nothing as Keke slipped back, denying her the taste of her breasts.  
“Oh Ancients, ‘twas you got right into me, you thrice-burnt demon, I swear you’ll be the death of m--”  
She paused, blinking in confusion as Rewana dangled a coiled rope before her nose.  
“Uh, what’s that for?”  
Rewana tittered, trailing a fingertip down Smug’s chest.  
“This goes right on your wrists, babe. You’ll be at my mercy for a good, long while...”  
Smug’s eyes went wide, sweat coalescing on her temples.  
“... but only if you feel comfortable at the idea. You don’t feel like it, we just toss it--”  
Smug jerked forth, hands clasped in a knot.  
There was something about the mental image of Wana imposing her every will onto her that sent her pulse skyrocketing.  
Besides, she would have trusted her with her very life.  
“Tie-- tie me up. Now. That’s an order.”

She hadn’t realised she’d started trembling wildly as Keke secured her arms to the bed frame, looking down at her with a predatory smirk.  
There was something, something in that makeshift exchange of power that sent Smug’s mind down a frenzied spiral of excitement.  
Smug watched as the woman slithered down her chest, and sighed when her lips began tracing the jagged edges of her scars, lingering around her nipples just enough to send her jaw clenching.  
She heard her prosthesis rattle against its constraints, and she gasped, enraptured, as Keke’s tongue trailed all the way down to her womb, unleashing a hot bite right below her bellybutton.  
“You’d better get ready, honey.”  
Rewana’s whisper slathered her skull with scorching caramel, and set her soul aflame.  
Their gazes met, and time seemed to stop for an instant.  
Smug felt her good hand get clammy and cold, and Keke’s eyes locked with hers as she licked her lips, slowly wrapping her thighs around Smug’s leg.  
“ _Oh Ancients,_ ” the captain uttered, head jerking back in the throes of ecstatic torture, a shot of warmth taking hold of her guts.  
When Keke grazed the hood of her clit with the tip of her tongue, Smug’s heart hiccuped.  
She could feel her pleasure ignite, and a shiver jolted through her spine as the woman’s hips grinded against her calf, in perfect synch with her licks.  
Smug tried.  
Oh, how she tried, to keep her control intact, not to surrender to the mounting urge to yowl like a mongrel in a heat, not to beg for release time and time again.  
Yet, she failed.  
When Keke pushed her on the brink of orgasm only to leave her hanging, Smug felt the pull of her constraints yanking her back, tendons bulging with strain.  
She opened her mouth, outrage wafting off her like steam, but her lover’s palm rushed to clamp it shut.  
“Shh. Relax, love.”  
Keke’s fingers dabbed at her flushed cheeks, both soothing and tantalizing.  
Then, she slid her index inside Smug’s mouth, and ordered her to lick.  
Once she was satisfied with the result, she crawled forth, and sat on the captain’s pelvis.  
Her thumb lifted Smug’s chin up, and her eyes locked with hers.  
“Don’t you dare look away. Understood?”  
Smug could do nothing but blow huge streams of air out of her nostrils, desperately trying not to choke as she took in Rewana’s majestic form, and saw her place her wet finger on her engorged labia.  
Smug swallowed, sweat burning her eyes as she felt Keke’s ecstasy mount, her warmth increasing along with her spasms. When she collapsed on her, spent by another burst of bliss, Smug’s vision clad itself in red.  
She really wanted to sob, but also snarl, and ended up doing both things at once.  
Her teeth closed in on Rewana’s neck, her breath scalding with pent up lust, a growl bubbling up her chest.  
“Please… Ancients I beg you, let me--” She bit her tongue, her captain-self swearing in humiliation as her very next words formed inside her brain.  
“Let me come, please, I--”  
Keke’s laughter hit her like a cold towel.  
“Oh, no Smug dear: not yet. You’re a big lass, you can take a bit of a beating.”  
She stopped only to give Smug’s broad shoulder a mighty squeeze.  
Then, the torture resumed.  
Smug gasped, swore, tugged at her constraints with all of her might, her metal arm whirring wildly as her body quaked. This time, Keke had started riding her, wiggling her hips in that way she knew drove Smug crazy, until her pulse drummed at the rhythm of fever, and the pressure in her womb became unbearable.  
Right at that point, Keke stopped.  
Without a word, she simply grabbed Smug’s neck and climbed onto her chest.  
“Finish the job for me, dear. Then maybe I’ll feel kinder.”  
Smug complied.  
She could do nothing else.  
There wasn’t a single inch of her body that wasn’t aflame with agony, and her ears were full of the frenzied roar of her own blood.  
She licked and licked, drinking up Keke’s salty moisture like a salvific nectar, an endless quick-fire of grunts scraping at the back of her throat.  
Rewana’s orgasm was loud, louder than anything she’d ever heard.  
It drilled a hole right through her temples, a hole made of primal arousal and seething envy.  
Once Keke got off her, Smug collapsed back onto her pillow, sweat dripping out of her every pore, heart banging like a fevered piston beneath her ribcage.  
“I--” She licked the salt off her upper lip, striving to regain her breath without really managing.  
“I’m dying. I--”  
Her lover’s mouth closed in around her throbbing trigger once more, and the last crumbs of coherence escaped out her mind’s window.  
Bouts of scorching heat filled her guts in strong waves, crawling all the way up her spine, seizing her every muscle in their overwhelming embrace.  
The sweltering contours of ecstasy began bleeding in her consciousness, and the steely maws of dread closed in around her stomach, for she was sure, so sorrily sure they’d go plummeting down into yet another instance of excruciating nothingness...  
Yet, they didn’t.  
Keke’s tongue pressed harder, harder, and faster against her, over and over again, until Smug felt it coming.  
She wasn’t ready.  
When orgasm erupted, violent and unbridled, in her womb, she felt her very soul explode out of her.  
She didn’t scream. She didn’t emit a single sound, too lost in that impossible feeling that had wiped her mind blank, making her every fiber seize up with liberating delight.

Her teeth were still clattering when Keke’s bright smile appeared before her, blurry and smudged liked ink droplets out of a dream.  
Smug didn’t have the time to gasp nor breathe.  
Her bubble hadn’t even begun deflating when she felt Rewana’s full weight on her lap, and the galvanizing grip of her legs around her waist.  
Smug’s jaws hung open in surprise and terror both as she stared at her like a deer in a headlight.  
Keke’s first response was a quick kiss, wet and fresh against the captain’s boiling lips.  
“The second’s always the best,” she added, nodding to herself.  
Then, she began grinding her pelvis against hers, riding on the wave of the still-growing surge of pleasure that had burst through Smug’s body in a relentless charge.  
Smug squirmed and thrashed, unable to stop that merciless attack that was injecting her full of a never-experienced delirium, her very form ungovernable as it succumbed to the strongest, most frantic, sodden orgasm of her entire life.  
When her pleasure hit the apex, she didn’t realise she’d started screaming.  
It was a coarse, bestial howl, infused with a primal kind of euphoria only a mammal could produce.  
Smug simply felt her throat bloom raw in its wake, right as her spirit slammed back in her body with enough force to sap all energy out of her muscles.  
She lay there, staring at the ceiling without seeing anything for entire minutes.  
She wasn’t sure she knew where she was, or _who_ she was.  
She simply was.  
And it was beautiful.

 

When the insane hum in her cranium began to wane, she could hear Keke’s laughter come through in echoes from somewhere close to her feet.  
She raised her head an inch, only to see her huddled at the corner of the bed, shoulders shook by an uncontrollable blast of mirth.  
“Smug, oh dear, oh boy, you were _loud!”_ She paused drawing a squealing breath, tears streaming down her face.  
“The tavern-- everyone got silent, I-- I can’t!! They’re gonna talk about this for ages, Smug, oh love, it was amazing...”  
Smug felt a vague hint of shame nagging at the back of her mind, but she swatted it away with a flutter of her eyelids.  
“Oh,” she said instead, realising the rope that had been keeping her captive had come loose with one of her last, fevered tugs without her even noticing.  
Smug massaged her flesh wrist with her brass hand, trying to reactivate its circulation.  
Her gestures were mechanic and uncoordinated, like those of someone who’d run too fast for too long and was now in desperate need of oxygen.  
“Smug, Smug...”  
She felt Rewana’s hand poking at her thigh, her persistent cackle finally starting to wear down.  
“Smug, how are you, love? Oh Ancients, quite the state you’re in, love...”  
Keke bent down towards her, caressing her sweat-soaked locks away from her brow.  
The kiss that ensured was soft and tender, but Smug still felt the sting of flesh resurfacing to bite her.  
“Uh,” she moaned, swallowing hard against that sudden yet welcome sensation.  
She brought her hands to her crotch and squeezed tight, rolling over in an attempt to let the last strands of that mind-numbing adventure wash away for good.  
When the gift of speech decided to manifest to her once more, Smug could say one thing only.  
“Dead. I’m dead. I’m dead, and you killed me, Wana.”  
Keke cocked her head, eyes flickering with ill-concealed triumph.  
“Well, I never go back on my word. I said I’d make you scream, and so I did.”  
Smug melted into a raspy giggle, and hid her face in the pillow.  
“Ooh, you did so much more, you did, you thrice-burnt demon. As soon as I get back on my feet, I swear--”  
Keke’s playful bite made her yowl in surprise.  
“You swear what? Come on, let’s hear it.”  
Smug turned around, a cheeky smile on her lips.  
“Why, I swear I’ll give you a long, loving kiss on that pretty mouth of yours, that I’ll do. What did you think, you blasted fool?”  
“Ah, and here I hoped you wanted to go take a bath, for a change!”  
Smug tickled Keke in the ribs, half annoyed, half amused.  
Then, realisation sank in in all its unpleasant fragrance.  
“Oh Ancient, we really do need a bath. Or three.”  
“Yep! Especially you: you remind me of uncle Tenri’s goats in this very moment.”  
“I’ll take that as a compliment regarding my horniness and not as an insult aimed as my odour, then.”  
Grinning ever-so-slightly, Smug pulled herself in a sitting position, and began unfastening her prosthesis.  
Her head was spinning madly, and every action felt like a titanic endeavour.  
“Ancients take you, Wana,” she muttered, dreading the moment she’d step down that bed.  
_Alright, old gal, you can do it. 3, 2, 1…_

As soon as her right foot hit the ground, her knees gave away, sending her sprawling on the floor.  
“This is your fault!,” she blurted, blindly groping around for support.  
Rewana’s chortle approached on fast feet, and she felt her lover’s warm shoulder underneath her arm as she propped her up.  
“Well, hey, it wasn’t me who told you to grow up so much all the blood gets straight in your ass when you try and stand up, you stupid beanpole.”  
Laced together, they stepped into the bathroom, and began filling the tub with hot water.  
They washed each other, indulging in a quick cuddle from time to time-- though Keke was well careful not to tease Smug any further.  
When they’d finished, they’d traipsed back to their bed, not a single spark of energy in their bodies, but chests aflame with a calm kind of happiness.  
They rolled in each other’s arms, basking in the warmth of that embrace, exchanging sweet kisses and snickering remarks, before letting the caress of sleep drag them down into a fuzzy oblivion.  
  
Just like countless times before.


End file.
